Wendy & Tinkerbell
Wendy & Tinkerbell
From The Peter Pan Syndrome...
WENDY: What are your exact feelings for me, Peter?
PETER: Those of a devoted son, Wendy.
WENDY (turning away): I thought so.
PETER: You are puzzling. Tiger Lily is just the same; there is something or other she wants me to be, but she says it is not my mother.
WENDY (with spirit): No, indeed it isn't!
PETER: Then what is it?
WENDY: It isn't for a lady to tell.
PETER (badgered): I suppose she means that she wants to be my mother.
TINKERBELL (flashing light): You silly ass.
Peter wanted girls to act as his mother. He was preoccupied with maternal acceptance and approval. His infantile dependency needs inhibited the development of a mature relationship. Peter had a one-track mind and if girls couldn't get on that track, he didn't want anything to do with them.
Wendy tries her best to meet Peter's needs. Although her disappointment is apparent, she continually tries to make Peter feel like a cherished son. But she isn't happy about it. On one occasion, she pushes Peter into the role of husband and father. This upsets him and he quickly reverts to the role of son rather than lover. Wendy indulges his every whim.
Tinkerbell also wants to be Peter's girlfriend. However you can tell from her caustic response that she won't tolerate magical nonsense coming from the one she loves. Peter spurns her time and again. He simply doesn't like her behaving like a woman and not a surrogate mother.
Wendy's relationship with Peter is distant and properly controlled. She behaves as she knows Peter wants her to, and is quick to alter her thoughts and actions in keeping with Peter's demands, however juvenile. She cares for Peter but she expresses that care through indulgence and pampering. It confuses her, but she complies with Peter's demand that she not touch him.
Tinkerbell on the other hand, is made of vibrant, living stuff. Her reactions are more what you expect Wendy's to be. Yet Tink is more human than Wendy. She yearns for a spontaneous growing mutually enveloping relationship with Peter, an idea he rejects without understanding it. The irony of an electrically charged spirit being capable of penetrating human emotions is intensified when we learn that Tink is allowed to touch Peter.
The story of Wendy and Tinkerbell vying for Peter's affection is a compelling and instructive sidebar to Peter's refusal to grow up. As destiny predicates, one of the girls must win. At story's end we find that flesh-and-blood propriety triumphs over electrical reality. Peter maintains a highly structured, cold, and distant relationship with Wendy. She wins an ongoing affiliation with Peter, but the hope of a productive relationship dims as her maturity carries her away from Never Never Land. As for Tinkerbell, we learn the fate of that gutsy little ball of light in this cryptic yet instructive exchange.
WENDY: I haven't seen Tink this time.
PETER: Who?
WENDY: Oh dear! I suppose it's because you've had so many adventures.
My limited experience with
here you go Lisa
Thanks, Barbara
explored
Peter Pan
Why we love the bad boy
Loving the bad boy
I am drawn to the "fun" boy.
Fun boy
did you
Barbara
Loving the self-absorbed
books here
Women Who Love Psychopaths
get it here
Betteroff